Page 80 of Loving Bad

It was hard to understand him without knowing about his past. All I knew was what he'd told me and that had been enough for me to understand why he was the way he was.

Then I thought about the stupid folder that had ruined everything between us. I hadn't even been tempted to have a peek at it. It didn't matter what he'd done in the past; what had mattered was what he did now. He'd walked away at the first sign of trouble.

I took a deep breath and released it. I didn't want to cry anymore, it wasn't helping me find a way out and it wasn't making me feel any better.

Most girls in my situation would be hoping that there would be a knight to swoop in and save her. But I'd learned through my past that that didn't happen in real life—in real life, people died.

I thought about Sin one last time before I pushed all the thoughts out of my mind. I felt emotionally and physically exhausted, but at least my stomach wasn't aching as much.

I lifted my shirt to see the dark bruises imprinted by the seatbelt across my chest and stomach. It was a good sign that there wasn't any serious damage. I thought about Matthew, at the gash on his head, and I prayed that he was okay.

As I dropped the shirt, I saw the plate of food and my stomach growled. I was hungry. I picked it up and studied the food for a moment. I was too hungry to care if Eric had laced my food with something. It was pasta with meat and vegetables. It tasted great and I began to eat. I needed to keep up my strength and I couldn't do that if I didn't eat. It was also another puzzling thing about Eric. Who made food like this for their prisoner? I placed the plate back on the floor and I got off the bed.

As I began to think, I paced back and forth. He wasn't really treating me like a prisoner. Yes, he had me locked in the basement, but he hadn't tied me up.

Then it struck me that he was treating me like someone would treat a person they cared about—well, except for causing an accident to kidnap me and locking me in his basement. But I knew Eric wasn't playing with a full deck of cards. It didn't make me feel any better because I knew he would not be caring when he took me by force and I would fight back. It wasn't in me to just let him take it from me.

He was unstable. I'd already seen the small signs and I knew if I fought back he would really hurt me. There was no way to escape the basement so I would have to think of another way to get away because, if I didn't, I was not going to make it out of this alive.

I wondered when Eric had developed this unhealthy obsession for me. Had it started after the hearing or had it been later? If Connor hadn't been such an overprotective brother, would Eric have gotten to me sooner? I pushed the thought from my mind, unable to deal with the answer that I might get.

I bit down on my lip as I contemplated what I was going to do.